The Next Ghostbusters---Darkness at Noon
by Rick Bacon
Summary: My first ghostbusters fanfic featuring the Ghostbusters in prominet roles. Rated R for violence and gore. R/R
1. It All Begins...

Darkness at Noon  
  
A Next Ghostbusters Tale  
  
1 PT.1  
  
This is something I began writing for an English class that turned into a tale of what happens on a hot, summer day. Columbia and Sony own the characters of the Ghostbusters, but I own the Next Ghostbusters characters. There are four parts to this fanfic. R/R and Enjoy!  
  
  
  
2 I  
  
Underneath the New York City streets and inside a tunnel, construction workers set about their work. Apparently, during the hottest day of the year, all water pipes had burst underneath the ground. Repairs on it called for both plumbers and city utility officials to handle it.  
  
As the digging continued, a man Bob Woollier stopped hitting the earth and stared at a large concrete wall that had blocked where he was digging. Other workers had stopped doing so too, until the fourscore men who were down there were scratching their heads and wondering what this wall was.  
  
The wall had also caught the attention of the supervisors.  
  
"What in the name of high school football is going on here?" Mike Rogers, a supervisor, asked to Woollier.  
  
"Well sir, it appears to be a large wall in front of where we were supposed to dig." He pulled out a map and showed Rogers that the wall was not drawn as a figure on the map. Rogers looked at the map twice, then at Woollier.  
  
"I can see that. Why have you not done something about it?" he spat at Woollier.  
  
Woollier cringed. "I…I don't know sir." Woollier went over to the men who had stopped working. He pointed to the wall. Rogers seemed pleased as walked back over to where the other supervisors were standing.  
  
"Do not worry, gentlemen. We have the situation all under control. I have just given one of the foremen orders as to the problem with this wall."  
  
"That is good. How is it that this wall never appeared on the map of this area?"  
  
"I'm only guessing that it was rerouted and that we found the original route."  
  
Rogers' words were only barely heard as Woollier gave the order to blast the wall. Debris scattered everywhere as men ran to avoid the flying concrete.  
  
As the dust settled, Woollier looked up. To his avail, the wall had not been knocked down.  
  
He looked back at Mike Rogers and the other supervisors. The glaring of their eyes he could see plainly. He went back to his men, and pointed to a battering ram.  
  
Seven strong men picked the heavy ram up, and stepped back several paces, before ramming it with all their strength. There was still nothing.  
  
Woollier had all but given up. He picked up a pick and began hitting the wall with it. Several others followed.  
  
The men did not hear the cracking of the wall until Woollier stopped and looked at ten cracks appearing in the spot he had hit. More cracks appeared in the wall, and pretty soon, the supervisors had gone up to the now crumbling wall.  
  
But instead of crumbling, it exploded and imploded in a burst of smoke, steam, concrete, and fire.  
  
What had been inside the wall were now flying all over the place; demonic like versions of vultures were attacking the men who were running away. They could not get far, as a mysterious wind had now picked up.  
  
Mike Rogers could not believe what he was seeing. "What the hell," he said as he swung at one of the vultures. The pick had only gone through it.  
  
The steam had only now begun to swirl; as sparks from a hay-picker had ignited into a fire.  
  
On the surface, throngs of onlookers who were passing by heard the cries for help being made. Eight of the men who were on the surface felt the tugging of the rotary cord and began bringing up whatever were tugging it. The cord began to get lighter as it reached the surface world. When it was up, all that was left was a black, smoking end.  
  
A low, disembodied voice began laughing, as a shadowy presence began swooping down upon unsuspecting men, leaving only their helmets. Those that saw this began running, but to no avail.  
  
  
  
  
  
3 II  
  
Andrew Taylor leaned against the telephone pole, with his hands in his pockets. He stared at the window of Cooper's Grocery, the neighborhood grocery store. He straightened up when a plump male and a black female walked out.  
  
"You got it?" he asked in a hurry.  
  
"Andy," said the male. "The store was all out of Baby Ruth bars. Besides, Cooper had to close early because of some kind of excitement downtown."  
  
"Of all the stores not to have it, Bill…" Andrew began, but did not finish. "What did you say?"  
  
"Yeah, something big is happening", Bill said. "It's all over the radio. Where they were fixing the water pipes of the city."  
  
"Hey Ron, isn't your dad like one of the public utility workers down there?"  
  
"Yeah, that's why we called Ross before Coop closed up."  
  
Andrew frowned. "You called…Ross?"  
  
Bill began to get what Andrew meant. "You know Ronni, maybe we shouldn't have called Ross."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"You know what kind of car he has to deal with. That old 1959 Cadillac Ambulance of his; remember when it broke down last month at the prom?"  
  
Ronni stared for a while, as she looked back at a time she would like to forget.  
  
"Well, its too late now," she said solemnly. "Here he comes."  
  
Ross Keegan's car backfired a few times as he pulled up to the curb where Andrew, Ronni, and Bill stood.  
  
"So," he said leaning over the passenger's side. "What's up?"  
  
"First, when will you get a new car? You're smoking up the place!" Bill stated, waving the black smoke that had followed.  
  
"When they are free. For right now," he said patting the wheel of the car, "this baby has held its own."  
  
"That's surprising," Ronni muttered.  
  
"Ross, we need you to get us downtown," Andrew said. "Something big has happened, and it might be linked to the paranormal."  
  
"You mean…"  
  
Andrew grinned. "That's right. They might call the Ghostbusters."  
  
"Well what are we doing shooting the breeze? Let's haul ass!"  
  
Ronni coughed.  
  
"…To use the vernacular", Ross said.  
  
It was a good thing that Ross' car was an ambulance, for the four friends could all pile into it. It backfired once, and sputtered down the street.  
  
  
  
4 III  
  
"Hey Andy", Ross said as they stopped at a light. "What makes you think that they will call the Ghostbusters anyway?"  
  
Andrew lit a cigarette. "Nothing like this has happened before. And besides, have you forgotten everything we learned in that course?"  
  
"Andy, all we learned was the proper handling of the proton packs and classes 1-5 ghosts. We know nothing of what this might be, if it is related to some paranormal being. And put out that cig eh? It could burn us all up!" Ross snatched the cigarette from Andrew's mouth and threw it out the window.  
  
Janine Melnitz heard the phone ring off the hook; and it was not the usual red phone that rang whenever there was trouble. Picking it up, she answered with her familiar greeting.  
  
"Ghostbusters. One moment please…" She turned to Peter's office. "For you Dr. Venkman."  
  
Peter Venkman always thought of himself as the leader of the Ghostbusters; after all, it was he who had caught the vicious Manhattan Slaughter Ghost two years earlier. When it came to Ghostbusting, Venkman was the MAN.  
  
But on the hottest day of the week, all he wanted to do was be cool.  
  
"This is Dr. Peter Venkman. How can the Ghostbusters serve you? Uh- huh…alright then, we'll be there faster than a jackrabbit on steroids." He hung up the phone.  
  
"Janine, be a dear and ring the alarm for the boys. OK?"  
  
Janine slammed down upon the alarm, which was originally a fire alarm.  
  
Ray and Egon came up from the basement, and Winston came from the parlor hall.  
  
"It must be a class six: a full upper-body roaming vapor", Ray said confidently.  
  
"Otherwise, why the horn?" Egon asked.  
  
"Gentleman", Peter began, "downtown there are some paranormal anomalies that have flown up from underneath the street and are attacking the people."  
  
"We can see that, " Winston said, and pointed to the window where the ghost vulture had hit.  
  
"Let's rock and roll guys!" Quickly pulling on their khaki flightsuits and getting their gear ready, Ray, Egon, Peter, and Winston all climbed into Ecto-1. Winston hit the siren and its familiar wail echoed as they pulled out of the firehouse garage door.  
  
Andrew pointed at one of the vultures that had landed on the top of Ross' car. It began tearing into Ross' window and was pecking at both Andrew and Ross.  
  
The opening in the window caused three more to fly in and they also began to peck and pick at Ronni and Bill.  
  
"Everybody, MOVE OUT!" Ross shouted as he opened the driver's side and jumped out. Bill, Ronni, and Andrew did the same. Luckily, Ross had driven past the playground. The dirt and grass provided a soft, yet still uncomfortable, landing.  
  
From beside the swings, Ross saw the vultures take control of his car and drive towards downtown.  
  
"I've had to brave carjackers, muggers, thieves, insurance salesmen, and my own Dad to keep this car; now what do I tell the insurance people? That it was jacked by ghostly visions of vultures?"  
  
"I would give 'em that story", Bill said, wiping away the blood from the corner of his eye. He had landed in the sandbox.  
  
"Oh my back!" Andrew cried. His landing at the slides was not comfortable.  
  
"Now what do we do?" Ronni asked. "We have no car, and it's still a good five miles downtown."  
  
"How about a lift?" Peter said, leaning out the passenger's side of Ecto-1. The Ghostbusters had seen the vultures take control of Ross' car, and saw the kids jump out.  
  
"Thanks Dr. Venkman", Andrew stated as he climbed into the back of the car with Bill, Ross, and Ronni.  
  
"You kids shouldn't be down this way anyway," Egon said. "You may have passed the course we gave, but your still a long ways off from doing any actual busting."  
  
"Aw, we just wanted to see how you guys do it. Best to learn from the professionals!"  
  
"And you say these kids never learn anything today, Egon, " Peter jokingly said.  
  
  
  
5 IV  
  
  
  
"There they are!" a woman in the crowd shouted when she heard the siren and saw the familiar 'No-Ghost' logo on the side of Ecto-1. The crowd of people began cheering as the car came to a stop and the guys stepped. Peter, being the son a of former circus performer, waved to the people, and even gave a kiss to a little old lady that was being pushed back by the police barricade.  
  
"Now", Ray said to Andrew, Ross, Ronni, and Bill. "You guys stay here in old Ecto-1. You know, where it's safe from danger."  
  
"But what if you're in danger Ray?" Andrew asked.  
  
"Don't worry. We're trained professionals. We can handle it."  
  
Ray went to the back of Ecto-1, and strapped on his proton pack along with Peter, Winston, and Egon.  
  
"You scared Ray?" Peter asked to Ray.  
  
"Yes. I am."  
  
Walking one by one to the hole, the guys were lowered by a city technician down to where the trouble had started.  
  
Back in Ecto-1, Ronni said, "I hope Dad and the Ghostbusters will be okay."  
  
Underneath the city seemed like a Hell on earth; there was little signs of life, and it was pitch dark. The smell of sulfur and rotting flesh hung in the air.  
  
Egon had brought out his famous PKE meter, and no sooner had he turned it on, the meter began to go off like crazy.  
  
"There's an inordinate amount of ectoplasmic energy in here."  
  
"What does that mean?"  
  
"It means there might be more ghosts than imagined."  
  
"HEY!" Ray shouted. He was pointing to something on the side of the path they were taking.  
  
The guys looked to see what had caused Ray to shout. Winston focused his flashlight on the object. It was one of the missing utility workers, except he looked more like a skeleton; his eyes and nose had sunk in, his cheeks were bony, his teeth showed more. He was dead. His life appeared to have been sucked out of him.  
  
Winston turned his flashlight away from the face to see the name on his tag: it read, 'Bob Woollier'.  
  
"Look, there's another one," Peter said. Dozens had suddenly appeared and they were lined up head to toe in a path-like way.  
  
Reluctantly, the Ghostbusters followed the path.  
  
On the surface world, Andrew, Bill, and Ross had gotten out of Ecto-1 and had joined the crowd of onlookers.  
  
"You know, this is as close to the action as we're ever going to get", Bill said. He pulled out a crushed Twinkie from his pocket.  
  
Ronni had just gotten out of the car too. But it was not for the same purposes as the guys; her father was down there, and if anything happened…  
  
"Does this look familiar to you Egon?" Peter asked. "I mean, this would not be found in Tobin's Spirit Guide, would it?"  
  
"Good idea, Venkman", Egon said. He pulled out a computer-notebook and opened it. He typed in several key clues.  
  
"Here's what we have: Tobin's Spirit Guide recalls that somewhere around 6000 BC, an ancient people called the Thibes resided here. History theorizes that they may have been the ancestors to the Atlanteans. The Thibian people thrived here before New York was New York, for about, as historians say, 5,000 years. Their technology was far advanced than anything at that time and we have only begun to tap what they did."  
  
"Okay, but how does this explain all this?"  
  
"The Thibian's had only one problem in their lives. It was a demigod named Azentoth who terrorized the Thibian people by sucking both their souls and lives out of them. Just as what we see here."  
  
"So what happened?"  
  
"The elders sought the help of Calachi, a mysterious practitioner in voodoo; he was known as one of the few who could tap into the mysteries of the spirit world. From here, Tobin's Spirit Guide does not go into detail how he did it, but it says that it was written somewhere on these walls. Calachi managed to wall Azentoth up, right underneath the streets here, along with all of Azentoth's demons, goblins, and others."  
  
"Nice fairy tale, Egon", Peter said. "So how do we get Azentoth back in"  
  
"Only a descendant of Calachi can send Azentoth back into the gates of the Netherworld by calling up the last of his powers; only the descendant can read what Calachi had written to stop Azentoth once again."  
  
"You mean like this writing here?" Winston pointed his flashlight to the dead language of the Thibians.  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"Hey, there's a light up ahead," Ray said, unlatching and charging up his proton pack. The others followed in the same way.  
  
"You know what", Ross said.  
  
"What, and if this leads to one of your jokes, I'll beat you over the head", Bill replied.  
  
"They've been down there a long time. You think something's wrong?"  
  
"Maybe, but we can't go down there. And if there is something wrong, the Ghostbusters have it all under control."  
  
Just as he said this, an explosion occurred underneath, causing half of the street to collapse; the sewers blew up in a rage of fury.  
  
"Dad!" Ronni screamed, and began running towards the underway. Andrew caught her. The streets began to rumble.  
  
A small, metallic object fell to the ground beside Andrew's feet; it was Egon's PKE meter.  
  
"Oh my god!" he said. "The Ghostbusters…they're dead!" 


	2. The Coming

Darkness at Noon  
  
A Next Ghostbusters Tale  
  
1 Pt.2  
  
  
  
  
  
The people of New York could not believe what they had seen. Their heroes, the Ghostbusters, were no more.  
  
Andrew could hardly believe it; he had spent his entire childhood hoping to become one of them, and in a matter of seconds, all of his dreams had been obliterated.  
  
Ross had been thrown backwards from the newly formed crater when the first explosion occurred. Landing on the hood of Ecto-1, he saw Andrew and Ronni just staring down that crater.  
  
"BILL, where are you. We gotta get out of here! QUICK!"  
  
"Where's Andy and Ron?"  
  
"Over there, get them!"  
  
Bill grabbed both Ronni and Andrew from their spots and dragged them to the Ecto-1, before chaos ensued amid the throngs of people.  
  
Coming to his senses, Andrew looked at the plate of Ecto-1, and a thought crossed his mind.  
  
"Guys, we have to do something about this."  
  
"Like what?" Ross asked.  
  
"We may not know what this is yet, but we SURE know how to handle it."  
  
Bill grinned. "You don't mean what I think you mean. Do you?"  
  
Andrew smirked himself. "You still know how to hot-wire a cars, Ross?"  
  
Ross looked down at Ecto-1, and then at Andrew and Bill.  
  
"Uh-uh. No way. This car is like…I don't know, but…are you SURE you won't to go through with this?"  
  
The four of them looked at the crater; a low grumble began to emit from it.  
  
Looking back at Andrew, Ross said, "All right, just give me a few minutes."  
  
"I can't believe you guys stole the Ghostbusters car", Ronni said as they were driving down 3rd and East.  
  
"I'll say one thing", Bill said in the backseat. "This car beats the daylights outta Ross' old heap."  
  
"Don't take the name of my car in vain", Ross said beside him.  
  
Behind the wheel, Andrew couldn't believe his luck; he was actually driving the legendary Ecto-1.  
  
"Okay guys, listen up. Now we all took that course back at Columbia University on how to handle proper Ghostbusting equipment. We know how to trap ghosts, use the proton packs without burning ourselves, how to empty the ghost into the ECU…"  
  
"Just what are you getting at, Mr. Taylor?" Ronni asked.  
  
Andrew smirked. "WE are going to help the Ghostbusters."  
  
When he said this, Ross laughed.  
  
"Are you kidding me?" he said between laughs. "We know how to do the stuff you said: Which we also got our licenses for. But how in the world would we stop this…whatever?"  
  
"That is why we are going to the guys firehouse and see what we can do."  
  
  
  
Back downtown, the low grumble that Andrew had heard were getting louder. Several police officers had now brandished their weapons, while others were keeping the crowds at bay.  
  
"The crowd is secure, chief", the sergeant commented to Chief Elwood Corey.  
  
"Good. We don't have a clue in hell what this is, but be sure to be ready when this hits." He looked down the hole. "I just hope those Ghostbusters are all right. They would know how to deal with this."  
  
No sooner had he said this, that Chief Corey was sliced below the torso; his blood and guts spilled all over the sergeant, who, it seemed, had wet his pants when it happened.  
  
The crowds whom the police had kept out of the hole were stunned as black claws began picking off some of the MP's that were near the hole. Horrible screams of bloody horror were heard.  
  
"Look!" a child in the crowd screeched as a long figure stepped out of the hole. He was no more than about as tall as the police sergeant, who was nervously shaking his pistol at him. The figure walked up slowly to the sergeant, before snatching the gun from him, and in the process, breaking his wrist completely off his arm.  
  
"EEEAGHHHH!" the sergeant screamed, as the figure raised his hand, and gave a mighty swoop at the sergeant's head. A woman screeched as the half the sergeant's head rolled by her feet.  
  
  
  
Janine saw the Ecto-1 roll into the garage. She had been hiding under her desk when the first blasts occurred. 


End file.
